The Joy of Syntax: A Simple Guide to All the Grammar You Know You Should Know

272 Pages·2018·1.75 MB·english

by  June Casagrande

Copyright © 2018 by June Casagrande
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown
Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York
www.crownpublishing.com
www.tenspeed.com
Ten Speed Press and the Ten Speed Press colophon are registered trademarks of
Penguin Random House LLC.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Casagrande, June, author.
Title: The joy of syntax : a simple guide to all the grammar you know you
should know / June Casagrande.
Description: California : Ten Speed Press, 2018.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017053029
Subjects: LCSH: English language—Syntax. | English language—Syntax—
Handbooks, manuals, etc. | English language—Grammar—Handbooks,
manuals, etc. | English language—Grammar, Generative. | BISAC:
LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Grammar & Punctuation.|
REFERENCE / Writing Skills. | LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES /
Reference.
Classification: LCC PE1365 .C27 2018 | DDC 428.2—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017053029
ISBN 9780399581069
Ebook ISBN 9780399581076
v5.3.1
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CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION
Part I: Syntax
1: So Who’s in Charge Here?
2: Phrases and Clauses
3: Parts of Speech for Grown-Ups
4: Nouns
5: Pronouns
6: Verbs
7: Adjectives
8: Adverbs
9: Conjunctions
10: Prepositions
11: Determiners
12: The Grammar of Phrases
13: The Grammar of Clauses
14: Coordination
Part II: Usage and Propriety
15: Agreement
16: Subject versus Object Pronouns
17: Flat Adverbs
18: Less and Fewer
19: Well as an Adverb and an Adjective
20: Possessive Plus Gerund (“Fused Participle”)
21: The Confusing Roles of the Letter S
22: Choosing the Right Preposition
23: Dangling Participles and Other Danglers
24: Oxford (Serial) Comma
25: Language Myths
26: The Grammar Oracle on Your Bookshelf
27: Sentence Fragments
28: One Word, Two Words, or Hyphenated?
29: Usage Guide
GLOSSARY
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
INDEX
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to my agent, Laurie Abkemeier; my editor, Lisa Westmoreland; my
designer, Christine Innes; and the copy editors, proofreaders, and publicists who
toiled in anonymity to make this book better. You’re all very much appreciated!
Also thanks to Ted, for everything, and to Maxine Nunes, Christa Faust, Treacy
Colbert, and all the members of my women writers’ lunch group for ten years
of making this solitary occupation a little less solitary.
INTRODUCTION
Hey, word nerd: I know your secret. You’re a natural at language. You’re the
person friends ask to read their resumes, their school papers, their cover letters.
You have a sixth sense for grammar, and on top of your innate ability, you’ve
amassed quite a bit of knowledge along the way. Maybe another language
savant in the family set you on the path. Maybe you went out of your way to
learn the difference between who and whom, the meaning of dangling participle,
or how to choose between lay and lie.
You’re good at this stuff, better than almost anyone you know, but you have
a dark secret: There are holes in your knowledge. Big ones. Despite all that
natural ability and hard-earned learning, you feel that you never got a good,
solid foundation in grammar. Sentence mechanics remain a mystery to you.
You’d be surprised to learn that tomorrow is an adverb and you’re not clear why
I feel bad is the grammatical choice over I feel badly. Worst of all, you’re not quite
sure what to do about it. You can’t go back to high school. You certainly can’t
go back to a better high school than the one you attended. And every resource
you’ve sought out let you down. The “help” you found was either too painfully
dry to compete with whatever was on HBO or it was just more of the same
grammar tidbits you already know.
Well, here’s some joyous news: I wrote this book for you.
It’s real grammar, the kind that you’d otherwise need a linguistics degree to
acquire. But it’s designed specifically for word nerds who find that learning
grammar, when it’s done just right, can be a real joy.